@Guitarweeps: thanks .
I wanted the flavor text to help convey how/why the creature destroyed a land when it died, and i think it does the trick.

Thu, 2011-05-05 06:08

Art_Freak

First, on each entry:

Spoiler:

lj: Absolutely love this card, lj. It's a beautiful use of the Memorial mechanic.

wind: Interesting idea, grabbing an extra out of a spent land, but it's a late game mana feed, so I'm not too sure about it.

picks: Viashino seems like a strange choice here, but then again, they seem to pop up in every set anymore, haha. Not a bad card design though, and great for the slot.

SE: I have no idea why you made a goblin lord on a giant shaman challenge. I get it that he generates his own goblins, but it's really random in a set that doesn't feature goblins as a main tribe.

GW: Now I like this a lot. It could hit for quite a large sum late game.

NKoC: Interesting card, and puts to use the spent cards sitting in the graveyard in a memorial deck. By the way, every strategy has a weakness, even to a single card. I can't help that Leyline of the Void exists, but I'm not going to waste my time trying to counter it in every design or mechanic. Besides, I didn't design anything here - the users have.

Nutty: Not sure about this one, it's really on the weak side. It's essentially a weakened and lower CMC version of Frostweilder. In fact, that's exactly what it is.

Sgmendez: Nice, an ETB Giant lord. Not a bad card, but 4/2 with that effect for may be too much. Leatherback Baloth though comes to mind when I see card designs like this, so I'll think about it.

Rusty: An enabler of its own destruction, eh? Not sure about this one either. The bonus it gives wouldn't be terribly useful after damage calculation.

Darkerling: Themed for giants, but another goblin. I'll have to think about this one too.

raptor: That's a really good effect that only appears at rare, so I'm going to have to say it's rarity is too low here.

hooliganj: I am so confused by the idea of chasing Giants out of a field, lol. It's not a bad card though, it's just not something red typically does. Red is more about land destruction than temporarily disabling them - that's more blue's game.

k1l1: I don't like the sacrifice part at all, but I can see it's usefulness with Memorial, so my initial reaction is kind of secondary to the strategy reaction here. Not a bad card for common, I'll keep it in mind.

kiku: I like the feel of a giant grabbing a flier out of the sky and putting it on the ground only to stomp on it. Very nice representation!

Cthulhu: This card is broken at a glance. Sure you may put yourself in a bad spot on your following turn, but the second ability is too powerful without a tap cost.

TAK: Randomly dealing damage to a creature in play works a lot easier in the online arena. I know there are real creature cards printed with "random" effects, just look at Capricious Efreet, but they just aren't much fun to have to deal with (and the example I gave only names 3 possible targets - this guy in a token deck would be extremely frustrating for its owner.)

0mega10: Land searching via a creature is a more costly matter than , just look at Frontier Guide. I'm also not sure why it's making golems - it may as well have been giant spirits, or just spirits - they are shamans, not geomancers.

copapoc: This is a very red card, and I think plays well at the cost and at uncommon (I assume you meant uncommon...)

elmdor: Nice. Very nice. I like how it emphasizes the presence of the tribal shamanic leaders.

Xera: This is a great card from a flavor and effect standpoint. Great design!

What's in:

Spoiler:

((Cave-Hermit Inspiriter))
Creature - Giant Shaman Memorial - When ~ is put into a graveyard, target Mountain you control becomes a 3/3 red Elemental Spirit creature. He lived there until his spirit was part of the Mountain itself.
3/3
Designer: lord_joakim

((Bringer of the Mountain))
Creature - Giant Shaman Memorial - When ~ is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, it deals damage equal to the number of Mountains you control to target creature or player.Giants are known for many things. Going down quietly is not one of them.
5/4
Designer: Guitarweeps

((Frenzied Cremater))
Creature-Human Shaman
Exile a creature card from your graveyard with converted mana cost X, : Ash Stormer deals X damage to target creature.While some want their ashes spread on fields, others want them to be infused with combustible magics and blasted upon their enemies.
1/1
Designer: New Kind of Christ

((Firemace Beater))
Creature - Giant Warrior
Firemace Beater has intimidate as long as you control a Shaman.
3/3
Designer: elmdor

CURRENT CHALLENGE:

Quote:

5th: creature, nonlegendary, elf and/or beast (other types allowed, so long as one of these is on the card (so Elf Archer would be acceptable)), green, max CMC , or

To aid with the fifth challenge, since there is little established direction for the set, I'll give you a skeleton of one for green: Green is all about purity of essence and the power of nature. The beast is strong and feeds off the land, while the elf is ever enduring. Think boosting and life gain, maybe land animation, or other land oriented effects.

I am so confused by the idea of chasing Giants out of a field, lol. It's not a bad card though, it's just not something red typically does. Red is more about land destruction than temporarily disabling them - that's more blue's game.

Bah! Defeated again by my own second guessing - the first version of my card destroyed lands (but not all of them). I changed the tone to something I though was more interesting, and appropriate for common.

I didn't expect to see so much Memorial in the red selections. It gives an impression of strong ancestor-worship in this giant tribe - certainly something to work with moving forward.

i wanted to do something big. it's the biggest CMC amongst all challenges up till now, and i wish to use it to its full potential. won't fit onto an elf, so i'm making this a beast, a baloth to be precize. as a basis i took the exsisting tukatounge thallid and sprouting thrynax, couse i love the flavour from these cards. then from there i took the other tribe, elves, and added them in to have some cross-flavour in here.

nurtureback baloth
Creature - Beast memorial when ~ is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, put nine 1/1 green elf tokens onto the battlefield.
9/9Elvish tribes often feed on the baloths, beleiving their gigantic size to possess healing and strenghtening properties.

Thu, 2011-05-05 17:51

Utheraptor

((Wildcaller))
Creature - Elf Druid Shaman

Memorial - When ((Wildcaller)) is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, put 7/7 green Beast creature token onto the battlefield.

I thought Memorial was refering to a graveyard from anywhere, not from the battlefield? How is this even distinguishable as a keyword if we do ti from the battlefield?

Thu, 2011-05-05 19:20

Art_Freak

How is it not? It's a pseudokeyword, recognizing a common situation as a trigger, in this case "When ~ is put into a graveyard from the battlefield", just like "as long as seven or more cards are in your graveyard" in threshold's case.

Thu, 2011-05-05 19:31

hooliganj

Several of the Memorial cards chosen so far don't specify "from the battlefield" in their text. Thematically, it would make sense if they all had that condition, otherwise we're memorializing people who never actually existed.

As far as balancing the mechanic, I'll have to leave that discussion to more experienced M:tG designers.

Elven Naturecaller
Creature - Elf Shaman
ReachMemorial -- When ~ is put into the graveyard from the battlefield, you may search your library for a Forest and put it onto the battlefield tapped. Then shuffle your library.
2/3

"Too wary to charge, too prudent to serve. Not anymore."
—Sedris, the Traitor King

Thu, 2011-05-05 20:31

lord_joakim

Anuttymous got it right.

If we just do it per the 'from the battlefield' clause, the set has no core.

Thu, 2011-05-05 20:38

New Kind of Christ

Reflection Balloth
Creature-Beast
As long as an opponent controls a black creature, ~ has deathtouch.
As long as an opponent controls a blue creature, ~ has shroud.
4/4

Thu, 2011-05-05 20:41

hooliganj

Art_Freak wrote:

One card was lacking it, and I fixed it.

Sorry, my miss. I was including all of the cards submitted with Memorial. Several of them were/are missing the "from the battlefield" restriction.

Since there are only 24 cards, I think it's early to assume the set will be lacking a mechanical core. I can easily envision a number of the spells designed in the next few weeks (esp. in white/red, where Memorial is found so far) will want to take advantage of the sacrificial nature of these creatures. Also, weeks 19 and 20 are still open to be defined - if no-one has taken advantage of the theme by then, maybe that will be one of the assignments.

Joakim, I think as a graveyard-matters set, it would make perfect sense to have that as a keyword, in fact, if Innistrad is a grave-based set (I'm anticipating it, but pure speculation) it may well have such a pseudo-keyword.
Either way, other keywords are going to be drawn out at the end if there turn out to be numerous cards with similar abilities, and other cards will be given said keyword, I imagine. Plus, as said, the last two assignments should provide 12 keyworded cards, which is more than enough for such a small set.
That said, I must admit that keywording such a common trigger does seem somewhat pointless, just from a design viewpoint, for me at least.

Symbiotic Packleader
Creature - Beast
Whenever ~ enters the battlefield, if you control five or more Forests, you may put a 3/3 green Beast creature token into play.
Whenever a Forest enters the battlefield, you may tap ~. If you do, put a 3/3 green Beast creature token into play.
3/3

I'm terrible with names. ("Forgive me... I'm very clumsy...")

Mind Mages
One set in design. One Fantasy From the Vaults in Design.Modding since 11-05-12

Fri, 2011-05-06 22:46

ﻼ

Creative Direction Award

Deepwood Druid
Creature - Elf Druid
Whenever a forest enters the battlefield under your control, add to your mana pool.The ability to channel the energy of the forests has made the ancient seers of Deepwood revered by many, and feared by many more.
1/1

My 'Stuff hub'
I really hate Mythic Rares...
TRUE METAL OR NO METAL AT ALL
NO TOLERANCE FOR WIMPY FALSE METAL

Fri, 2011-05-06 06:07

Sgmendez of Golgari

Yeah, I thought the card was probably a bit to costly but I also thought of Leatherback Baloth as well as the pseudo rule that one colored mana is equal to two colorless mana. In the end I figured it wasn't going to make it but I thought I would try.

Beast Caller
Creature - Elf Shaman
When ~ enters the battlefield, you may search your library for a Beast card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. If you do shuffle your library.
Memorial - When ~ is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, you may put a Beast card onto the battlefield from your hand.
1/1

"If you can't enjoy what you're doing, don't do it."
Proud member of the Golgari Swarm

Since the description for this round is pretty vague, I let my imagination run around a bit and it came back with 5 different ideas, all of which I tried to turn into cards. Then I left them in the oven overnight to stew and looked again. After tweaking the ones I still liked, I've settled on one to be my entry.

Unfortunately it's not that one that had a little haiku for the flavor text - I may post that once the round is over.

Spore Harvester
Creature - Elf , : Place a 1/1 green Fungus Creature token on the battlefield., sacrifice a Fungus Creature: Add to your mana pool or gain 2 life.The secret is to not get too attached to them.
1/1

Lamented Megadink
Creature — Beast Memorial — When ~ is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, you may return target land card from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped.
3/3

★ Administrator ★

Sat, 2011-05-07 16:40

elmdor

Art_Freak, did you notice that every red creature is a Shaman, meaning that my warrior's ability would be almost always active?

[Lifegiver]
Creature -- Elf Shaman : Regenerate target creature. Activate this ability only if you control more lands than each opponent.: Add to your mana pool. Activate this ability only if you control more creatures than each opponent.
2/2

((_____ Beast Caller))
Creature - Elf Shaman (if having a shaman in a non-red color for this set is not allowed, take it off), : Search your library for a Beast card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library.
1/1"You won't like my friends when they're angry" (lol, jk)

I'm questioning myself if I made the mana cost for the power the right size. It feels too small and too big at the same time...

Sun, 2011-05-08 14:19

Utheraptor

I think that you have a bad wording in your post, Darkeling. It should be:

Search your library for a Beast card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library.

Mutant of Raven's Run
Creature-- Elf
Trample
All other creatures you control get -1/-1.
~ gets +1/+1 for each other creature you control.
8/6

Cthulhu eats YER MIND SOUL AND BRAIN.
He also makes for a kickbutt eldrazi deck.

Sun, 2011-05-08 18:14

Darkerling

True, true... now to find the edit button...

EDIT:What the heck? there isn't an edit button on that post...

I've fixed it for you. Please stay on topic. The edit link disappears if somebody else has replied to it using its reply link, as opposed to a general reply using the quick reply box. -Rusty

Mon, 2011-05-09 01:47

Balaam

*Beast Rider
Creature - Elf Druid
When ~ enters the battlefield, you may search your library for a Beast card, reveal that card, and put it into your hand. If you do, shuffle your library.Memorial - Beast creatures you control get +2/+2 until end of turn.
2/2

Vine Tiger
Creature- Cat
Memorial- when ~ is put into a graveyard from play, search your library for a land card and put it into play, then shuffle your library.
2/2

Working on making sets that are balanced and more creative. So far:
Hyrule 145/145 (needs pictures, balance, and flavor)
Final Fantasy 145/145 (a little better, but needs a little more polishing)

Mon, 2011-05-09 21:10

Guitarweeps

Head Administrator

Timbercharge Baloth
Creature - Beast
Whenever ~ attacks, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn for each Forest you control.You don't want to be close to the baloth as they can tear through any hide in seconds. Being farthur away is not much better, that just gives them more room to charge.
4/4

An upgraded Timbermaw Larvea I felt was appropriate to show how the beasts gain from the land. This guy is hard to deal with and harder to kill in combat. Now you just need to give it trample...

it sure does look a lot like saber ants but i had no idea that card existed lol. actually nested ghoul and sprouting thrinax were the cards i had in mind when i came up with my entry. also the name is kind of an homage the thrinax

Wed, 2011-05-11 17:09

Samche999

@theamazingkamahl: Thats a good idea. I was trying to stick with the prompt more, but I suppose cat makes more sense for a tiger. I went ahead and changed it.

Working on making sets that are balanced and more creative. So far:
Hyrule 145/145 (needs pictures, balance, and flavor)
Final Fantasy 145/145 (a little better, but needs a little more polishing)

Wed, 2011-05-11 23:59

TheAmazingKamahl

But, since the challenge was beast or elf, maybe beast-cat would add some nice flavor.

windandfire: A trampler that can pump itself up, decent base stats, and a fair cost. A pretty stable card all in all.

lj: I like this card a lot, and it would feed well in a memorial deck. The limitations to the pump I think balance it well.

Nutty: Oh elves, mana and life gain all rolled into one. Great representation of what elves do best.

copapoc: I like the idea of a beast lord to the elves, and I think this card has an awesome theme.

Utheraptor: A beast caller, like copapoc's entry above, is a great way of representing how the beasts and elves work together.

k1l1: Land tutoring is always a good thing.

Sewn-Eye: Interesting card, and definitely going a direction I didn't expect. Was there any particular reason for blue hate?

NKoC: Now this is an idea I can really get behind. Cards like Cliffrunner Behemoth are some of my favorites, and the idea of a card that works in a similar way, but based on your opponent's field is great.

TAK: Is there any particular reason you went with the "choose a player" etb effect over just adding "target" to the memorial effect? It's the only thing I don't like about your entry, because it removes the option to choose where it goes in the moment.

Nerameshu: It's got a very Ally styled effect, triggering etb and then again under certain circumstances. It's not a bad card though.

kiku: I like how you've taken a different approach to mana generation here, and how it would feed on land producing decks well.

Sarkhan: A late game life gainer at heart, but it's hard to get any feeling for why it has that ability. It's a very elf ability, not beast, but you've made it beast.

hooliganj: I like the idea of an elf farmer, and the flavor text is good. I just have a hard time justifying a mana generator that will only produce one extra mana a turn later, when earlier a producer that gains you one life right now was submitted. I think if I went with either it would have to be theirs, sorry, j.

Rusty: Land retrieval, and it's not basic restricted. The stats are good too. Love it.

elmdor: I like how seemingly flipped the restrictions are on the abilities, but I can see why you did that. I'll have to think further on this one later.

Picks: The Servant really forces mono green and probably wouldn't see much or any play otherwise. I relaly liked the Goyf better, because the reward for playing monogreen is so much higher, which is typical of Goyfs.

Darkerling: I think the activation cost is really too high, and that a or activation cost would have been sufficient. My only problem with it is that I'd probably pick Fauna Shaman, even with her cost of discarding a creature, over this guy just so that I could have the extra mana to cast what I fetch from the deck.

Cthulhu: Oh man, this guy is too big. I like the idea of it leeching power, and it effectively would wipe the board of a token deck making him harder to play in such a deck or awesome to play against such a deck with a Bazaar Trader, but at 8/6 base he's just too big to begin with. A creature that feeds off of other creatures and pumps like that is usually much weaker base.

Balaam: Another beast tutor, but one that rewards upon death. The boost is simple and could be extremely effective under the right circumstances.

Samche: I'd have left it beast. You missed the mark of the challenge completely by changing the creature type away from beast or elf, and while it may be thematic with your card's name to do so, names of submissions aren't staying the same - they're just placeholders. Other than that, the land tutoring ability is nice and the card seems fairly well balanced.

GW: Great homage card of a great card. Love it.

Xera: Classic use of saprolings, (they seem to make an appearance in almost every set except on Mirrodin... no artifact saprolings (yet, lol).) A beautiful design though, and the idea of it spitting out saprolings whenever it gets hit is great.

What's in:

Spoiler:

((Reflection Balloth))
Creature-Beast
As long as an opponent controls a black creature, ~ has deathtouch.
As long as an opponent controls a blue creature, ~ has shroud.
4/4
Designer: New Kind of Christ

((Lamented Megadink))
Creature — Beast Memorial — When ~ is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, you may return target land card from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped.
3/3
Designer: Rusty Keyes

((Timbercharge Baloth))
Creature - Beast
Whenever ~ attacks, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn for each Forest you control.You don't want to be close to the baloth as they can tear through any hide in seconds. Being farthur away is not much better, that just gives them more room to charge.
4/4
Designer: Guitarweeps

((Deepwood Druid))
Creature - Elf Druid
Whenever a forest enters the battlefield under your control, add to your mana pool.The ability to channel the energy of the forests has made the ancient seers of Deepwood revered by many, and feared by many more.
1/1
Designer: kikushadowblades

((Elven Naturecaller))
Creature - Elf Shaman
ReachMemorial -- When ~ is put into the graveyard from the battlefield, you may search your library for a Forest and put it onto the battlefield tapped. Then shuffle your library.
2/3
Designer: k1l1

((Grave-Moss Feeder))
Creature - Beast
Exile a card from your graveyard: ~ gets +2/+2 until end of turn. Activate this ability only once per turn.
1/1
Designer: lord_joakim

Alright, we've got a pretty good idea of where white is going, as well as the other colors. White is classic holiness and life gain, with the added mantra of "destroy the nonbelievers!" What I'm looking for this week are 6 cards that exemplify what a destructive force white can be and that offer the player a chance to survive lethal damage in some cases either by life gain or prevention. Ideally what we're after is 1 destroy/exile enchantment/artifact, and 2 life life gainers/preventers. For further ideas on what white should be doing, look here

Sixth deadline is May 18th, 11:59PM CST.

Thu, 2011-05-12 16:46

Utheraptor

((Last Hope))
Instant

Destroy target artifact. If artifact creaure is destroyed this way, you gain 5 life.

I know we are not supposed to make comments about other cards since it is a contest and all but I am really surprised that Deepwood Druid made it in. It is effectively a Lotus Cobra that only works with , which isn't that big of a deals since most decks with Lotus Cobra were anyways. It is just a huge jump from to as well as only costing instead of .

"If you can't enjoy what you're doing, don't do it."
Proud member of the Golgari Swarm